Built in 1980, the multi-tenant building sits on 14.8 acres at Air Trans Road and Pilot Drive south of the Lamar Avenue-East Raines Road intersection. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2013 appraisal is $1.5 million.

In conjunction with the purchase, Chob Realty filed a $950,000 deed of trust through BankPlus. Dwight Wilkins and Kevin D. Wilkins signed the deed as members of the borrower.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports– Daily News staff

MAAR Honors Top Realtors

The Memphis Area Association of Realtors has named Carol Lott of Crye-Leike Realtors the 2013 Realtor of the Year, while Carmen Prince of Fast Track Realty has been named 2013 Realtor-Associate of the Year.

The 2013 Affiliate of the Year award went to Sandy Moore of Baymark Title and Escrow Service. Jules Wade of Prudential Collins-Maury received the Outstanding Leadership Award.

The Community Service Award was garnered by Kathy Webb of Murphy, DeZonia and Webb. William Mitchell of Crye-Leike Realtors received the Lifetime Achievement Award. The MAAR Mentor Award went to Ray Bouder of Real Estate Mart of Tennessee.

Church Health Center Wellness Hosts Open House

The Church Health Center is hosting an open house at its wellness facility, Church Health Center Wellness, on Jan. 11.

The event, at 1115 Union Ave., will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is free and open to the public. It will include health screenings, yoga and stretching classes, healthy cooking demos, activities for children and facility tours.

Lisa Carson, director of Church Health Center Wellness, said the event will be a day of “fun, fitness and fellowship.”

– Andy Meek

Harris to Lead City Council Budget Committee

Memphis City Council member Lee Harris will be chairman of the council’s budget committee for 2014.

Harris’ selection is one of several made by incoming council chairman Jim Strickland, who in 2013 had been budget committee chairman as well as council vice chairman.

Harris was chairman of the council’s audit committee last year, an assignment that now goes to council member Edmund Ford Jr.

Strickland also made council member Myron Lowery chairman of the Memphis Light, Gas and Water committee, which had been chaired by council member Janis Fullilove.

As committee chairwoman, Fullilove had focused on the utility’s widening of its smart meter pilot program. Fullilove was opposed to the new meter technology, saying it was intrusive and unsafe. The council nevertheless approved expanding the use of the meters.

MLGW President Jerry Collins, who was also a frequent target of Fullilove’s criticism during committee sessions, denied the meters are unsafe or that they can be used to spy on utility customers beyond providing more specific billing information to go with time-of-use utility rates.

Fullilove will become chairwoman of the council’s public services and neighborhoods committee.

Council committees meet twice a month, on the same Tuesdays that the full council meets. The committee sessions begin at 8:30 a.m. and end just before the 3:30 p.m. voting session of the full council.

Committee recommendations on items going to the full council are not binding on how the council votes.

The council’s first meeting of 2014 will be Jan. 7.

– Bill Dries

NYC Sues FedEx Over Cigarette Deliveries

The City of New York filed a civil lawsuit on Monday accusing FedEx of illegally delivering tons of untaxed cigarettes to city residents from a distributor on an Indian reservation on Long Island.

The suit, filed at a federal court in Manhattan, accuses FedEx of knowingly violating the terms of a 2006 settlement with New York's attorney general in which the company agreed to stop all deliveries of mail-order cigarettes to state residents.

City lawyers said that even as that deal was being negotiated, FedEx continued to deliver cigarettes from select tobacco dealers, including the Shinnecock Smoke Shop, located on the Shinnecock reservation in eastern Long Island.

Between 2005 and 2012 the company shipped at least 55,000 cartons of cigarettes from the shop to consumers in New York City, according to the lawsuit. That total – an estimated 20 tons – doesn't include cartons shipped elsewhere in the state or the country.

FedEx had a public policy of not delivering cigarettes to homes anywhere in the U.S., but the city claims the shipper ignored that policy when it came to the Shinnecock shop. The suit said FedEx even signed a written agreement giving the smoke shop discounted rates because it was doing so much business.

The city is seeking $825,000 in lost tax revenue, plus nearly $2.5 million in penalties.

FedEx said in a statement that it supported the city's efforts to stop illegal cigarette shipments and had ceased doing business with the shop involved, but it said the city's claims are "overstated and not founded in law."

– The Associated Press

Walgreen Offers Prescription Help Tied to Health Overhaul

Walgreen Co. will fill prescriptions at no upfront cost to some patients who don't have all the information they need for coverage received through the health care overhaul.

The nation's largest drugstore chain said Monday that it will provide up to a 30-day supply of some branded and generic medicines to patients who can confirm their enrollment through the overhaul's public insurance marketplaces but have yet to receive a plan identification number, which is normally needed to process a claim.

These patients won't have to pay anything at the pharmacy, but they may receive a bill later for the co-payment their plan requires them to make. The drugstore chain also will collect payment from the insurer once it verifies enrollment.

The overhaul aims to cover millions of uninsured people, with many insurance customers signing up either through state-based insurance exchanges or a federally operated website, www.healthcare.gov. Website crashes and other problems marred the debut of that website last fall.

Insurers also are worried about technical problems that involve the government passing along inaccurate information on enrollees. It remains to be seen whether more complications will crop up when people try to use their benefits in the new year.